The R.J. Hampton Blog: End of summer ball, another gold medal and more

The R.J. Hampton Blog: End of summer ball, another gold medal and more

Little Elm (Texas) point guard R.J. Hampton is one of the top players in the country, regardless of class, with a who’s who of college suitors to match his five-star status like Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma and many others. Hampton, who is ranked No. 2 overall USA Today Sports’ Chosen 25 for 2020, was a member of the U16 and U17 National Teams that captured gold medals. He obliterated the competition to the tune of 31 points per game last high school season and also led the UA Circuit in scoring (27 points per game). He’s agreedto give USA TODAY HSS exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from his recruitment to his everyday life in a blog.

What’s up world, it’s R.J. Hampton back with another blog to update you guys so let’s get into it!

Well, I’m just getting back from Vegas and my summer ball is officially over!

That’s crazy to even say, but it’s been a great summer.

We did pretty well in Vegas, we went 2-2. I didn’t play the last game because my foot was bothering me a little bit, but I’m all good now.

I felt good about how I played this summer; I exceeded some expectations and met a lot of my goals so I was happy.

I won another gold medal with USA Basketball, but it was a little bittersweet because that’s when I hurt my foot so I only played limited. We think it was just a foot sprain and the doctors checked it out and everything was fine.

I played about 2.5 games despite the injury and it was a great experience winning gold again for my country. It’s always fun getting out there with all my guys and having fun.

My dad is in the process of framing both of my jerseys and my medals so that should be cool.

My recruitment is going about the same as it was before.

I would definitely say that Kentucky is coming on stronger and Memphis is too.

I just hear from both of those schools more than I had been and they were at almost all of my games in Vegas.

I still haven’t heard directly from Coach Cal, but I’ve heard from Coach Penny a lot more.

Then Duke, Kansas, Texas and TCU have still been coming at me hard like they have all summer.

It’s weird to say that I’ve started to get used to the whole recruiting process. Now I kinda know when a coach is gonna call or if they just randomly text me I don’t have to rush to text them back right away.

If I’m sitting there on my phone I will text them back right away, but either way I don’t leave them hanging for hours.

More than anything I’ve enjoyed getting to know these coaches as people.

The coaches from Michigan sent me a gif of me on Fortnite and Texas sent me a pic of me as Drake on the new “Scorpion” album and it said “Texas 2020.”

It makes it easier to relate to the coaches and they know not to make it all business with a teenager. That makes it more fun.

I think one of the best conversations I had with one of the coaches was recently with Coach Yaklich from Michigan. He talked to me about the notes he took on me in the games that he watched and he taught me the things that I could work on.

I love that.

I don’t like to be told what I want to hear. Get me better!

I head out to the Steph Curry Camp on Sunday so I’m looking forward to that. I can’t wait to pick his brain about different things. The main thing that I want to ask him is how he gets open all the time. I face a lot of face-guards in games and I just want to know what he does conditioning-wise to prepare for those defenses.

After that I’ll just be relaxing until school starts.

I’m actually ready for school to start. I love school and I’m ready to get to the football games!

Music-wise I’m loving Meek’s new project, YG’s new song “Big Bank” and of course Drake’s new album “Scorpion.”

Oh I saw “The Incredibles” recently and that’s a 10 out of 10

I haven’t played Fortnite in a hot minute, but I did play with Jalen Suggs and Scottie Barnes and we got a few dubs!

I’m still the No. 1 Fortnite player in the country.

OK guys I’ve gotta get going, but I’ll be back soon with my next blog so stay tuned!